Friday, April 1, 2011

Plans for the Weekend and training thoughts

It is Hanami (cherry blossom party) time here in Japan and I realize that there are so many that have very little to celebrate. That may be the case, but as many have argued, for those who are not affected by the recent disaster and far away from it, there is no point hiding inside. We need to live life and in a time when the Japanese economy is in trouble, we need to get outside and spend money! That's one way to help the economy.

That being said, of course, people in many parts of Japan will be getting outside this weekend for many of the nation's first hanami parties (basically picnics and bbq's outside....anywhere people can find cheery trees!).

I plan to head to my first hanami party of the season tomorrow afternoon with my family and several other families. It should be an interesting time. I will be the only non-Japanese person there and my Japanese language skills are not very strong. Tomorrow will be a good linguistic workout for me!

As for running workouts, I plan to get up early and run 8km in the morning. My knee is still being difficult! I am feeling some anxiety about that , but I am also confident that I can deal with it (running slowly, using my new shoes and ice afterwards). I'm then planning a 10k run on Sunday morning. Hopefully by next week I can begin to train harder.

I worry that I may have to move the date of my 60k run further ahead in June which means dealing with the intense heat of Japanese summer. If that is the case, I will just have to start my run earlier in the morning. That may mean a 4:00am start as opposed to the 5-5:30am start I was originally anticipating!

My overall goal for the next week, kilometer-wise, if my knee permits, will be about 50km. Ideally, by the end of May, I'd like to be pushing 90km a week or more (knee permitting)!